The Best Elder Scolls Game?

The best Elder Scrolls game?

  • Arena

    Votes: 3 1.9%
  • Daggerfall

    Votes: 28 18.2%
  • Battlespire

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Redguard

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Morrowind

    Votes: 92 59.7%
  • Oblivion

    Votes: 31 20.1%

  • Total voters
    154
Wow, no offense to those who voted for Morrowind, but you're making me feel old. Daggerfall had its weaknesses with randomization, but had a feeling of breadth that Morrowind lacked horribly. Vivec (sp?) was supposed to be a major city and there were MAYBE 30 people living there. Not very impressive. I'd take the cardboard people giving me rather accurate directions in Daggerfall any day over the spartan world of Morrowind. Oh, and wall climbing, levitation, flying, smashing chests instead of picking them open (for the non-thief types) made Daggerfall a more interesting game. Hell, even Passwall in Arena made it more interesting than Daggerfall.

I opened this with a statement about my age. I think being part of the evolution of role-playing games in those years is what colors my perception. Daggerfall kicked ass when it came out. It was goofy in its own way (2-D people, crazy-big random dungeons, etc.), but it shocked me with how revolutionary it was. Folks who were 16-20 years-old when Morrowind came out might just think I'm a crazy old codger. That was there revolutionary game, even though it was a seriously stripped-down Daggerfall. You just can't reproduce those first impressions when a game is newly released. Nonetheless, I wish Bethesda had built on the freedom afforded by Daggerfall and used the current technology to make a bigger, more believable world -- rather than paring it down, like they did with Morrowind.
 
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Wow, no offense to those who voted for Morrowind, but you're making me feel old. Daggerfall had its weaknesses with randomization, but had a feeling of breadth that Morrowind lacked horribly. Vivec (sp?) was supposed to be a major city and there were MAYBE 30 people living there. Not very impressive. I'd take the cardboard people giving me rather accurate directions in Daggerfall any day over the spartan world of Morrowind. Oh, and wall climbing, levitation, flying, smashing chests instead of picking them open (for the non-thief types) made Daggerfall a more interesting game. Hell, even Passwall in Arena made it more interesting than Daggerfall.

I opened this with a statement about my age. I think being part of the evolution of role-playing games in those years is what colors my perception. Daggerfall kicked ass when it came out. It was goofy in its own way (2-D people, crazy-big random dungeons, etc.), but it shocked me with how revolutionary it was. Folks who were 16-20 years-old when Morrowind came out might just think I'm a crazy old codger. That was there revolutionary game, even though it was a seriously stripped-down Daggerfall. You just can't reproduce those first impressions when a game is newly released. Nonetheless, I wish Bethesda had built on the freedom afforded by Daggerfall and used the current technology to make a bigger, more believable world — rather than paring it down, like they did with Morrowind.

Sorry, mistyped this part: "Hell, even Passwall in Arena made it more interesting than Daggerfall."

Should read "...more interesting than Morrowind."
 
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Passwall was one great, great spell. Besides, it was really necessary to get around some of the more difficult enemies ^^. 'Make your own dungeon', indeed.
Ah, I liked them all, even Battlespire (which usually gets most of the flak). There are days when I prefer Morrowind, days where I prefer Daggerfall, and days where I praise Arena or Oblivion. Fact is - I'm really waiting to get my hands on Skyrim.
 
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Wow, no offense to those who voted for Morrowind, but you're making me feel old. Daggerfall had its weaknesses with randomization, but had a feeling of breadth that Morrowind lacked horribly. Vivec (sp?) was supposed to be a major city and there were MAYBE 30 people living there. Not very impressive. I'd take the cardboard people giving me rather accurate directions in Daggerfall any day over the spartan world of Morrowind. Oh, and wall climbing, levitation, flying, smashing chests instead of picking them open (for the non-thief types) made Daggerfall a more interesting game. Hell, even Passwall in Arena made it more interesting than Daggerfall.

I opened this with a statement about my age. I think being part of the evolution of role-playing games in those years is what colors my perception. Daggerfall kicked ass when it came out. It was goofy in its own way (2-D people, crazy-big random dungeons, etc.), but it shocked me with how revolutionary it was. Folks who were 16-20 years-old when Morrowind came out might just think I'm a crazy old codger. That was there revolutionary game, even though it was a seriously stripped-down Daggerfall. You just can't reproduce those first impressions when a game is newly released. Nonetheless, I wish Bethesda had built on the freedom afforded by Daggerfall and used the current technology to make a bigger, more believable world — rather than paring it down, like they did with Morrowind.

I was a (and still am) a huge fan of Daggerfall as well (but never really played Arena). Still, I prefer Morrowind. Daggerfall was in some ways too ambitous, too large. For all its breadth it started to feel generic after a time, the unique things too spread out. But I still have a vivid mental picture of Vvardenfell, its culture, religions, and myths in my mind.
I agree though that Daggerfall gave its players visions of what could be that have never really materialised - not in the later TES games nor elsewhere.
 
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Daggerfall was the most ambitious and (by far) the most flawed.

Morrowind was the most unique and I think that's a big reason why most people prefer it.

Oblivion is pretty generic, but I prefer it because it's the most immersive and it has the best combat mechanics. It was simply the best basis for the modding community, and mods made it pretty great.
 
Arena: An interesting game, lots of interesting ideas, but it feels like the developers were not entirely sure what to do with everything. A good first step, but in my opinion, the game does not hold up very well.

Daggerfall: Huge, wonderful setting, lots of background information and a lot of things to explore. Bugs & frustrating dungeons did kill the game for me though (this was the first TES that I played).

Battlespire: Frustratingly buggy, and to be honest, the gameplay did not hold up all that well either. My least favourite of the lot.

Redguard: A few interesting ideas, some interesting characters, and a plot that held some merit. Controls were a bit awkward though, and the game was buggy.

Morrowind: The elderscrolls game with the most interesting setting & artistic design. The world was beautiful, in particular after a bit of modding. The game did have a fare amount of flaws, but fans were able to fix most of them. My favourite TES game and the only one that I have finished.

Oblivion: A beautiful game, with a rather generic high fantasy setting. Hearing the very same voice actors over and over again was a bit of an immersion breaker (and it got even worse when the beggars suddenly would change their voice when you asked them about certain things). Also, the game started to feel very repetitive after a while.
 
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Oblivion by far for me. Then a toss up between Morrowind and Arena, then Daggerfall. Never played any of the expansions.
 
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Started the series with Morrowind - I did not know TES before, even if I am not that young.

Morrowind by a fair amount.

In Oblivion I could not stand with the infamous level scaling, did not like the simplification of the stats, missed the unique loots, etc.

Seeing how Skyrim will be even more over-simplified - what will remain? Just Health and Magicka? What a joke - I'm sure I will not even try it.
I need deep stats in order to create the very character I want to play, that is one of the key features I like in RPG, and Skyrim won't cut it for me.
 
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Daggerfall was my favorite. It had by far the best character creation in the series, and the most freedom. YOU COULD CLIMB WALLS...OMG! Randomly generated stuff feels a little weird - mainly the NPCs, but I was somehow able to get into my own story enough that they seemed believable. After all, how often do you interrogate everyone you pass on a street?

Morrowind is a very close second. Although it lacked the scope of daggerfall, I never stopped thinking how beautiful the world was and I couldn't wait to discover what was around the next corner.

I think Arena should get an honorable mention as the first game that opened my eyes to the possibility that a video game could grant me a least a bit of the experience of the paper and pencil rpgs that I played at the time.
 
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Hmm hard to say.. so far I always had the feeling, that for all the promise the games had, nearly everyone lacked a certain... quality. The worlds always felt.. big but lacking enough meaningful content apart from some of the more interesting guild quest.
In the end I would say Daggerfall for its sheer size and ambition or Morrowind for the first impression it made, before I felt bored with the lackluster NPCs and rather limited creature variations.
 
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Daggerfall of course. Morrowind has doomed Bethesda Softworks in my opinion. It could have been so great ! still hoping Daggerfall 2, you know... one man has to dream.
 
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Oblivion might as well have been Daggerfall 2. Outside of the capitol, the world they presented looked more High Rock than what Cyrodiil was supposed to look like according to pre-Oblivion lore.

As far as I'm concerned, Venetica looks more like what Cyrodiil should look like than Oblivion does. :p
 
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Oblivion might as well have been Daggerfall 2. Outside of the capitol, the world they presented looked more High Rock than what Cyrodiil was supposed to look like according to pre-Oblivion lore.
Not in my book, for it was not a matter of landscape. It was about proceduraly generated terrain, quests, and the like. This is what they could have enhanced (and fix to some degree). Minecraft and Mount & Blade felt closer to Daggerfall than Oblivion in my eyes. They chose to rip this off with Morrowind, when it was what mattered to me.
 
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Wow, no offense to those who voted for Morrowind, but you're making me feel old. Daggerfall had its weaknesses with randomization, but had a feeling of breadth that Morrowind lacked horribly. Vivec (sp?) was supposed to be a major city and there were MAYBE 30 people living there. Not very impressive. I'd take the cardboard people giving me rather accurate directions in Daggerfall any day over the spartan world of Morrowind. Oh, and wall climbing, levitation, flying, smashing chests instead of picking them open (for the non-thief types) made Daggerfall a more interesting game. Hell, even Passwall in Arena made it more interesting than Daggerfall.

I'm an older player myself. I've played CRPGs since the TI99. But for me, Morrowind was more the total RPG experience than any other Elder Scroll game. Sheez, the Daggerfall auto map alone is enough to take away a whole grade from its score. What bothers me about the Elder Scroll franchise is that up till (and including) Morrowind, it seemed the designers were taking small steps in advancing the RPG genre with each game. But now, after Morrowind, it seems the Elder Scroll games are just getting better from a graphical perspective only.
 
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Problem with this poll, is I bet that the majority of the players who have played Elder Scrolls games didn't start playing them till Morrowind or Oblivion, and most of them were probably on the consoles and never even heard of the other Elder Scrolls games. Kind of a pointless poll, since it largely includes people who have not played, and probably not even heard of the other ES games.
 
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Problem with this poll, is I bet that the majority of the players who have played Elder Scrolls games didn't start playing them till Morrowind or Oblivion, and most of them were probably on the consoles and never even heard of the other Elder Scrolls games. Kind of a pointless poll, since it largely includes people who have not played, and probably not even heard of the other ES games.

I think that would definitely be true at most gaming sites, and may still be true here, but I also think the average member here at The Watch has been playing crpgs longer than the members at a lot of other game forums.
 
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Problem with this poll, is I bet that the majority of the players who have played Elder Scrolls games didn't start playing them till Morrowind or Oblivion, and most of them were probably on the consoles and never even heard of the other Elder Scrolls games. Kind of a pointless poll, since it largely includes people who have not played, and probably not even heard of the other ES games.

You obviously have no clue about this site.
 
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